I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Wednesday, March 30th.

A funny thing happened recently on the way to the usual left-right debate on cancel culture.

The New York Times editorial board took

the position that it's a problem. It said America has a free speech problem in large part because

left and right are caught in a destructive loop of condemnation and recrimination about the topic

of cancel culture itself. The Times editorial board wrote,

Many on the left refused to acknowledge that cancel culture exists at all,

believing that those who complain about it are offering cover for bigots to peddle hate speech.

Many on the right, for all their braying about cancel culture,

have embraced an even more extreme version of

censoriousness as a bulwark against a rapidly changing society with laws that would ban

books, stifle teachers, and discourage open and open discussion in classrooms.

So that from the New York Times, just yesterday, we led the show with an analysis of Florida's new

education law, derisively known as Don't Say Gay. A Times poll that they published in conjunction

with the editorial found nearly half of people surveyed said they feel less free to talk about

politics than they did a decade ago. The Times poll found slightly more

Republicans than Democrats said they have held their tongues recently for fear of harsh criticism,

and more women have than men. Sixty-one percent of women cited not feeling free to speak about

something compared to 49 percent of men. But then, of course, there's Andrew Cuomo.

Cancel culture says, if you don't agree with me,

and my point of view, then you should be canceled.

They do it through social media.

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